What would cause this toning on a nickel.

Don't be such a snob Paul
I'm in on the "like this kind" of toning group!

 

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Snobbery would dictate posting a coin with attractive toning, like this one.

 

...Eye of the beholder man. Personally I prefer yours as well, but like in art different tastes prevail.

 

I am working on my snobbery here even though it is a little OT.

 

Fair enough, snob away.

Btw Doug you could be right about the blue folders. I just remember this toning in old collections and groups fairly often. That could be the cause. I have a bag of nickels a dealer put away for me at face, (I may have given him a few bucks), in the 80's as a courtesy, (just non-silver Jeffs without 38ds, 39ds, and 50d, from groups and folders that walked through the door), that were only ever worth face back then. I will be a man and admit I practiced dipping on these very coins like this. They were only worth face value, so I thought no harm done. Btw this toning is very light, it comes off much easier than the toning Gbroke posted.

I know, heresy dipping away toned Jeff's. Sorry Paul, but if it helps it was OP's kind of toning mainly, not like yours, (though there could have been a couple unfortunately). In my defense toning was not really valued then, and I was trying to learn how and when to dip in order to save more valuable coins.

 

I am not wholly opposed to dipping coins, no heresy in my view.

 

Not discounting your experience, but wouldn't improper alloy mix lead to the same thing? Even more confusing to me with your explanation is that the toning goes through the high and low points of the coin and album paper would not be able to reach the recesses, I wouldn't think.

More to the point, the reason I say this is because I've seen this type of mottled toning on mint set coins that have never seen the inside of a Whitman, and the direction is always the same (actually opposite) on both sides presumably showing, I always thought, the direction the planchets were rolled out.

Therefore, I maintain this toning pattern is related to an improper alloy mix -- just like copper woddies -- rather than post-mint storage conditions.

Respectfully...Mike